Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Last week on her MSNBC show, Rachel Maddow covered a story that is not being mentioned much in the media: the failure of the Tea Party in the polls as of late. One Tea Party Republican, Kim Simac, who was endorsed by Glenn Beck, was defeated. This will be covered by in the first clip below, and the second clip covers the make up, by Party affiliation and ideological orientation and social values, of the Tea Party where Maddow interviews .

First, via MSNBC, listen to Maddow discuss two Tea Party failures at the polls:

It has taken a while, but people are starting to figure out that we don't want Tea Party representatives in government or for that matter any people associated with the reactionary propagandist, Glenn Beck. That would include, if Maddow's analysis continues to hold in the current election cycle, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain and Governor Perry, all extremist, Tea Party candidates for president who have been guests on Beck's show on Fox.

hosted extremists on Fox

Of course, the next election may become a gift to whomever runs against a President in power during bad economic conditions. If recent results are any indication however, even a bad economy will not bring people to vote for candidates like Perry who aim, many believe, to tear down the wall of separation between church and state, exactly as the Tea Party and Glenn Beck want to see happen.

The first known federal disaster relief programs occurred after Portsmouth, New Hampshire fires of 1802 and 1805. This was followed by the Norfolk fire of 1804, and the New York fire of 1835. There was also federal relief provided after the New Madrid earthquakes in Missouri in 1811 and 1812.

[...]

Beck’s claim that until 80 years ago there were no federal disaster relief programs is not true. This history of this country proves him wrong. More troubling than Glenn Beck’s ignorance of American history is the attitude that the federal government shouldn’t help after a natural disaster. One of the government’s primary responsibilities is to protect all of its citizens. Glenn Beck wants to define protection only in military terms, but the public outrage at the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that the American people expect more.

There is a reason that Beck's biography is subtitled Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. Beck has been expressing fiction as "history" and false claims as "facts" for years. One can only wonder what kind of person listens to Glenn Beck and believes that he is either informed or honest when his claims are so easily fact checked and proven wrong. Some people just want to hear something to believe to be factual.

It is difficult to know how most Americans hear this kind of callous remarks from this radio propagandist, but one thing is clear. Glenn Beck is an extremist way out of touch with what most people expect from government. The reason pundits have been calling any little crisis that President Obama has faced "Obama's Katrina" is precisely because the government was not responsive enough to the crisis of New Orleans and along the Gulf coast in the aftermath of that disaster. Beck was alive at the time; he remembers the disaster of Katrina and the failure of the government in the aftermath of that hurricane.

expresses fiction as "history" and false claims as "facts"

He also seems to believe that the government is not needed to restore the services needed for the businesses affected by this storm to get back to work and back into business. The fact is, business units, large and small, rely upon effective government to protect their private interests as much as people, individuals and in groups, rely upon effective government to protect their (our) public interests. There is no one else who can do this as effectively as the government, no matter what Glenn Beck fantasizes about people helping people without help from Washington and state capitals. Hurricane Katrina proved this assertion as a verity no matter how much Mr. Beck wants to forget or ignore it.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Last week Glenn Beck held his "restoring courage" rally in Jerusalem, Israel. Guest host for MSNBC's The Last Work, Christopher Hayes, covered this event. He discussed it with guest Jeremy Ben-Ami, author of A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival if the Jewish Nation.

Whether Beck defines a "new holy war that's going to engulf the Middle East" successfully or not is yet to be determined, but he seems to be encouraging extremists who would rather fight and kill than compromise to establish a two state (Israel and Palestine) solution.

Fewer than one in five Americans (17 percent) believe Beck is the right person to helm a religious movement, according to a PRRI/RNS Religion News Poll released Thursday by Public Religion Research Institute and Religion News Service.
[...]

Beck was only correctly identified as a Mormon by 17 percent of respondents -- the same number who think he is either Protestant or Catholic.

This confusion may work to Beck's advantage as an aspiring religious leader, however, since the poll also found that two-thirds of respondent think Mormons have beliefs different from their own, including 41 percent who consider them "very different."

Of course, low popularity doesn't stop a self-righteous, extremely ambitious and possible megalomaniac from exploiting the ignorance and gullibility of those on the far right who support Mr. Beck's political and spiritual orientation such as they are. After all, 17% of Americans are plenty enough people to provide a handsome living as a pseudo-preacher and uneducated, unqualified political commentator with an enormous gift of persuasion.

Rarely missing an opportunity to make himself a hypocrite, Beck issued a Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities during this event to promote himself. Last of the 10 points is this seemingly righteous statement: "Because I have a right to the truth, I will not bear false witness nor will I stand idly by as others do." The problem with this, the hypocrisy of this coming from Mr. Beck is that he does bear false witness, to the President, to Van Jones and to others. Glenn Beck and the truth have barely a passing acquaintance, and this assertion gives him great latitude to spin actual facts. Of course, you would not know this to hear it from Beck or his gullible minions.

Fortunately, Glenn Beck is off the television for now. However, what is absurd and funny for some people is serious and important for those followers of Mr Beck. Those who have yet to grasp that he his fundamentally a dishonest propagandist out to make a name for himself and a fortune off those ignorant enough to believe Beck because he is, after all, an extremely convincing liar, are plentiful and loud enough to have an adverse effect in American political discourse and election results.

Maybe one day Glenn Beck will actually take his 10th point of rights and responsibilities seriously and stop bearing false witness against his opponents. Given his commitment to reactionary propaganda, one would be unwise to hold one's breath waiting for this to happen.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Previously on the Review, Keith Olbermann's criticism of Fox "scrubbing" Glenn Beck's transcripts was analyzed and called out for its inaccuracy. (Beck ad-libed a lot while the "transcripts" Fox published were what Mr. Beck has in front of him to read.) In this case, Mr. Olbermann does not bother pointing out how absurd Beck's idea of leftist collaboration with Muslim extremists is; instead he falsely mocks Beck's intelligence.

Although Beck has many ideas that are absurd, ignorant and sometimes flat-out dumb, he is not in the view of his biographer, Alex Zaitchik, a "B B head." Mr. Beck can be criticized for many reasons, but he is no dummy.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Previously on the Review, the book Debunking Glenn Beck by Karl Rogerswas previewed. Karl Rogers, PhD, is professor of philosophy and a cofounder and director of the John Dewey Center for Democracy and Education, affiliated with the Institute of Advanced Study, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Rogers's published works include Participatory Democracy, Science and Technology: An Exploration in the Philosophy of Science; Modern Science and the Capriciousness of Nature; and On the Metaphysics of Experimental Physics. The book cover is a link to the publisher where it can be ordered.

In this post, the Preface to Debunking Glenn Beck: How to Save America from Media Pundits and Propagandist is offered. According to the ABC*CLIO website, the book:

...was written in response to Beck's Arguing with Idiots. Its most immediate concern is with exploring the agenda behind Beck's arguments and exposing the flaws in his reasoning. But this book's real mission is something much broader. Using Beck as an example, author Karl Rogers also shows why media reform is so vital to the future of democracy.
To make that case, Dr. Rogers offers a detailed discussion of the ideas and ideology at work in Beck's arguments, revealing how the well-known conservative pundit has distorted and twisted facts to misrepresent American history, the meaning of progressivism, and even the U.S. Constitution. The book examines topics ranging from the Second Amendment to health care, education, housing, the Supreme Court, unions, democracy, and government. It concludes by explaining how Americans can revitalize the Constitution as a living document and, by doing so, revitalize public debate and democracy itself.

full of bunk

Preface

Radio and television show host Glenn Beck is a controversial figure. He has made

his fortune from being a media pundit and propagandist. Describing himself as only

“a rodeo clown” and an entertainer in search of ratings, he has regaled his listeners

and viewers with exposés about government conspiracies and plots.1 Declaring that

progressives are secretly attempting to impose socialism on America, he denounces

any kind of “social justice” as being the path towards National Socialism and/or

communism. While advocating his brand of “conservative libertarianism” and

claiming that he is on a mission from God to restore America to its founding

principles, Glenn Beck has become a household name and bestselling author. When I

first saw him on television, I thought that his own description of himself as a rodeo

clown was about right. I watched his show with some amusement, thought “this guy

is nuts,” and gave him no more thought.

Some time later, I was on a flight to Alaska and noticed that the man sitting next to

me was reading a book by Glenn Beck called Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small

Minds and Big Government.2 We struck up a conversation. I asked him what he

thought of the book. He said it was okay. He passed it over to me. Flicking through

it, I was disappointed with its general silliness, as it trotted out cliché after cliché

interspersed with cartoons and random comments. I passed the book back.

However, over the next few weeks, I started watching his show. My first impression

was that his “logic” tended to leap about—in what he terms his A.D.D. moments—

but it conformed to the same formula and was easy enough to follow. Beck takes a

proposed policy, say, public health care, and associates it with an ideology, such as

communism, and then, via that ideology, he connects it with some of the extremes

that have been done in the name of that ideology, say, Soviet gulags. Hence,

according to this “logic,” if you want a taxpayer-funded system of health care to

provide subsidized prescriptions for children or the elderly, then you are on the

slippery slope toward a totalitarian police state and labor camps. Using this “logic,”

he has argued that Christians or progressives who want any degree of “social justice”

in America are on the path to National Socialism, concentration camps, and

attempted genocide. He has urged Christians to leave any church in which the pastor

or priest advocates any kind of “social justice.” He has also called progressivism a

cancer that needs to be cut out and eradicated. These claims seem to be rather

implausible, but it left me wondering whether any people were buying into any of it.

Reluctantly and with some embarrassment, I bought his book and read it from

cover to cover. I found it to be so full of distortions, half-truths, and assertions that it

led me to decide to write a book in response to it.

I don’t think that Beck is “nuts.” He is an entertainer. His show is all about ratings

to gain advertising revenue and make money. It is a commercial endeavor. Beck has

a multimillion-dollar business, with his TV and radio shows, his websites, his books,

and his public performances. And, after all, he is largely preaching to the choir. His

audience tends to be members of the conservative right, self-proclaimed libertarians,

and conspiracy theorists, and Beck tells them what they want to hear. They lap it up.

What’s the problem, then? If I don’t like his show, I can always turn off the TV or

2. Glenn Beck, Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government (New York: Threshold
Editions, 2009) (hereafter cited as AWI).

3. Glenn Beck (TV Show), Fox News Channel, December 8, 2010; videos and transcripts of Glenn Beck’s
TV program can be found at the Fox News website, http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/glennbeck/
index.html/, and at Beck’s own website, http://www.glennbeck.com/; see also The Daily Beck,
http://www.watchglennbeck.com/.

7. Brian Stelter, “Spotlight from Glenn Beck Brings a CUNY Professor Threats,” New York Times, January
21, 2011. For Glenn Beck’s response and continued targeting of Frances Fox Piven, see the Glenn Beck
Program, January 24, 2011, 4.56 p.m. EST; audio from Glenn Beck’s radio show can be found at his
website, http://www.glennbeck.com/.